Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone. No message, no resolutions, no promises.

Coming soon: posts about Women in Rock, Women in Romanticism, and after that, renaming this blog to Philosophy of Contemporary Song.

The idea of the renaming came from my daughter Grace (16). We were discussing (clearly) Bob Dylan’s Philosophy of Modern Song. I’ve created a spreadsheet tracking the book’s coverage: male and female singers, songwriters, and number of songs from each decade. When I mentioned that a few songs came from the 1920s, but most were from the 1950s (for an artist who started recording in the early 1960s, of course), she said, “Why does he call it modern song?” When I mentioned that nothing he wrote was actually philosophy, she commented on the deeply flawed nature of the book title.

I pointed out the difference between “modern” and “contemporary,” and then she said she wished someone would write something in depth about contemporary artists. So I promised her (not you) that I’d do just that. It’ll start with a post about the Dylan title and then move forward from there. Nicky Minaj is on the list.

Coming soon.